Despite resilient gold and silver prices, the summer doldrums have taken a toll on precious-metals equities as the marketplace deals with unprecedented low volume; however, one analyst says that now is a great time to buy.

Mickey Fulp, creator of the Mercenary Geologist investor newsletter, noted in a telephone interview with Kitco News that spot gold, last trading around $1,262 an ounce, is up almost 10% since the start of the year. However, mining equities have seen little benefit from the rally; the TSX Venture Composite Index is relatively flat on the year.

Not only has the index been unable to attract capital but momentum in the sector is weak as trading volume has fallen to unprecedented levels. Fulp pointed out that the Venture Index’s average daily volume last month was less than 50 million shares.